Emily Kenny

6 days ago | mynews13.com | Emily Kenny

Tim Custer, a fourth-generation maple producer in Cuyler, taps about 15,000 trees each year – and he’s looking to grow. Knowing New York has a process for leasing trees on state land for tapping, he went on a quest last year to get permission to tap trees on state land that abuts his property. Custer explains the different grades of maple syrup. (Emily Kenny/Spectrum News 1)Since 2022, the state Department of Enviornmental Conservation issued just two requests for proposals to tap on state land.

1 week ago | mynews13.com | Emily Kenny |Seth Voorhees

Ryan Dunham and his family have lived across the road from a farm field in New Scotland for 21 years. He was used to the smell of manure and fertilizer, but the use of sewage sludge a year ago changed that. “The first thing that hit us was the smell, which was unbearable,” Dunham said. “It smelled like rot, like something had died. My kids didn’t want to go outside in the middle of July.”Then he heard his daughter yell from the shower. Water in a wastewater treatment facility in Watertown.

2 weeks ago | ny1.com | Emily Kenny

New York lawmakers introduced legislation Wednesday that would put a five-year moratorium on the spread of biosolids on farmland, a practice experts and homeowners say is to blame for harmful chemicals leeching into groundwater. Ryan Dunham, a resident of New Scotland, lives across the street from a farm field that spread manure and other fertilizers for years. However, he says last summer they switched to using biosolids, which the Albany County Health Department confirmed.

2 weeks ago | mynews13.com | Emily Kenny

Labor challenges are ongoing for many New York farmers, with some opting to bring foreign workers through the seasonal agricultural worker visa program, H-2A. “We’ve been using the H-2A program for close to 20 years,” said Brian Reeves, an owner of Reeves Farm that raises a variety of vegetables on 300 acres in Baldwinsville.  The program comes with some challenges and can be expensive but in the end offers them a workforce that they can rely on, Reeves said.

3 weeks ago | mynews13.com | Emily Kenny

While agriculture leaders and farmers are excited for a new $1 billion yogurt processing facility built by Chobani, they cautioned Tuesday there will be challenges ahead. “This is a really fun day, it’s a very good day to be me, the commissioner of agriculture, because this is really good news for agriculture, especially good news for dairy,” said Richard Ball. Dairy is New York’s largest agricultural sector and Chobani isn’t the only company to add processing facilities here.